The Fields - Softcover

Maher, Kevin

3.41

849 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443413216 ISBN 13: 9781443413213

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013

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Helen Macdowell gets hit in the face with a hockey ball. That’s how it starts. Yes. The beginning of the end. All downhill from there. Helen’s beautiful. She’s got this light brown wavy flowy hair that curls back from her forehead. Her face is round, and her nose is soft and slightly ski-slopey. Her lips are browny pink, but shiny with lip gloss. And her eyes, Jesus, her eyes are crystal blue, really clear blue, no dirty bits in the blue. She’s beautiful and she’s going to be a nurse, or an airhostess, or a private investigator. At least that’s what my sister Fiona says, and she should know.

South Dublin, 1984. Meet Jim, thirteen: the runt of the litter at home and plankton in the school food chain. Opposite in every way is the dazzling Saidhbh Donohue older and sophisticated and the girlfriend of local thug Mozzo. Nonetheless, after a drunken but beautiful rendition of “The Fields of Athenry” at the Donohues, our hero captures the attention not just of Saidhbh but also that of the dangerous Father Luke O’Culigeen. Bounced between his nascent love for Saidhbh and the abuse he receives at the hands of O’Culigeen, his life starts to unravel, and he and Saidhbh make their way to London.

Here the novel takes a wild turn as Jim becomes involved with the School of Astral Sciences, tapping into his heretofore unrealized healing powers. When the pedophile O’Culigeen reappears on the scene and bad news arrives from home, the narrator finds his surprising new abilities put to the test. Funny, moving and unforgettable, The Fields is a compelling, hugely original novel of interrupted adolescence.

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About the Author:

KEVIN MAHER was born and brought up in Dublin, and moved to London in 1994 to begin a career in journalism. He wrote for The Guardian, The Observer and Time Out and was film editor of The Face magazine before joining The Times (London), where he is a feature writer, critic and columnist. He lives in Hertfordshire with his family.

From Booklist:

Set in Dublin in the 1980s, The Fields is the story of young Jim Finnegan’s coming-of-age. Benchmarks of his uneven progress include his serial sexual abuse at the hands of the local parish priest and his falling in love with a beautiful older girl, Saidhbh. A bit improbably (he’s only 14; she’s 17), she returns his affections and in short order becomes pregnant. The two go to London, planning an abortion. But will they follow through, and what will happen to them in the city? Maher’s first novel features a wonderfully sympathetic protagonist and first-person narrator in Jim, while his family—his parents and five older sisters—are equally endearing. The voice and tone are spot on, but after a realistic treatment of the characters and a nicely realized setting, the book takes a very odd turn near the end when Jim discovers New Age thought and practices. Indeed, the ending almost seems to belong to another book but is redeemed by the boy’s rapprochement with his family. Inconsistency aside, The Fields is an often humorous, always diverting exercise that is sure to charm readers. --Michael Cart

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